AAPIDA In-Depth | Windy Chien On Her Journey with Knots and Leaning Into the Unknown

Introducing our new AAPIDA interview series where we spotlight our members through in-depth conversations about their background and their craft. Our first feature is Windy Chien, a fine artist based in San Francisco who creates sculptures from individual knots. 

By Vivian Wong

Windy Chien

At first glance, the sheer scale of Windy Chien’s sculptures bowls you over and leaves you capsized, in pure awe. A closer look reveals the series of individual knots that form each piece. Chien’s sculptures are a culmination of smaller components that, together, weave a monumental visual narrative. In this way, Chein’s journey as an artist can be traced to the same starting point as each of her masterpieces: an entire career that started with a single knot. 

Chien is an artist based in San Francisco and uses knotting to create sculptures and site-specific installations. Her previous clients include the National Geographic Society, the De Young Museum, the San Francisco MOMA, Nobu Hotels, Google, the U.S. Department of State, and the Kering Group. Through knotting, Chien explores tensions between assumed ideas within cultural and social constructs.

Chien’s career as an artist began in 2016 with The Year of Knots after 8 years as ​​iTunes product manager, producer, and curator at Apple and 14 years as the owner of Aquarius Records. Chien was at a turning point, breaking away from her established career in tech at 46 to spend a year fully immersed in the pursuit of creativity. She jumped from ceramics to woodworking before finally finding a perfect fit with knotting. Soon after tying her first knots, Chien realized she wanted to create macramé that was distinct from the rest of the world’s. “If most macrame looks alike, [it’s] because there [are] only three or four knots that anybody ever uses [...]. At the time, I didn’t know that there are 4,000 knots in the world, but I thought, I’ll just learn a bunch of knots. I’ll learn one knot every day for a whole year.”

Over the course of a year, Chien hung each new knot she learned on her wall. As the months passed, she realized the knots began to form a project bigger than she imagined; together, they transformed into a full art installation, and, above all, her first work of art. Chien posted her progress through The Year of Knots on social media and amassed a flood of public and media attention. Multiple book publishers reached out to her to write a book about her experience, and she signed her first book deal. The Year of Knots was an instant hit. 

Although the year of knots drew a wave of public attention, Chien was cautious about pursuing art full-time. As a descendant of Asian American immigrants, practicality was a major emphasis; the idea only became viable when she began to receive increased interest from prospective customers after the publication of her book. “I was very focused on, can I make a living from this? Does this have legs? Can I support myself?”

 The tension between caution and the ability to lean into the unknown remains a balance Chien continues to navigate even today. A month ago, she finished a 2-week expedition towards the North Pole aboard a three-masted schooner as a participant of the Arctic Circle Residency where she crafted a net from blue rope on the Arctic ice. Hanging the net at the front of the ship, a fellow artist from the residency suggested to be suspended within the net nude above the water. The photo of the performance depicts vulnerability and trust as the artist depends on the net to hold her from falling into the ocean. Against the Arctic backdrop, the net contrasts with the colossal glacier behind it, emphasizing the scale of the moment.

As this residency did not require her to have a completed piece by the end of it, Chien’s decision to create the net was an improvisation. When asked about the biggest takeaway from her time at the Arctic Circle Residency, Chien says, “I learned that I don’t have to have a plan. I can just go in and respond in a creative way”.

But hasn’t her path as an artist been largely defined by her ability to lean into the unknown? From the moment she decided to leave Apple, she has always stepped forward into uncertainty, weaving beauty out of the unknown with every single knot. Thinking for a while, Chien muses, “Yeah…Maybe it's a lesson I needed to learn again[...]But that’s funny because I didn’t really recognize it as a lesson that I had learned before. That’s funny. That’s really amazing.”

In the end, it’s the breadth of her work and being a witness to these individual steps that comprise a whole journey that really takes our breath away. As Chien continues to weave her art, there is one enveloping emotion she hopes her viewers will be able to take away from her work: “[T]hat is a sense of awe and coming in close second, is delight[…]that sense of being part of this thing that's very big, but it was made for the community[… ]The sense of something that's bigger than any one person.”

Windy Chien on AAPIDA:
“I heard about AAPIDA when Kevin Pong and Noz Nozawa held the kickoff event here in San Francisco in January 2024. While I had worked with several members of the AAPI design world previously, gathering everyone together felt so right: Manifesting a community that already existed under a common banner that we can all wear proudly. When I meet with an AAPI designer, there is an immediate commonality and trust, things I value very much. Already a few commissions have come my way via our community, for which I’m grateful.”